Some improvements on the energy absorbed in axial plastic collapse of hollow cylinders

The control of the plastic flow mechanism during axial collapse of metallic hollow cylinders is of particular interest in the present work for the absorbed energy. Hence, an experimental methodology is developed during which some different tubular structures are loaded under compressive quasi-static strain rate. These structures of various geometrical parameters g = Rm/t and k = Rm/L (Rm: mean radius, L: initial length and t: thickness of tube) are made either from copper or aluminum considered as an energy dissipating system. At this point, the effects of both parameters on the mean collapse load and absorbed energy are appropriately studied. The role of g ratio, which has been largely investigated previously, is studied again. Moreover, it is found that the k ratio has a non-negligible influence on the deformation mode for a given g. It is well known that the absorbed energy is influenced by the deformation mechanism, i.e., for the axisymmetric mode, the related absorbed energy becomes more important than that of the diamond fold mechanism for a given cylinder. Accordingly, to maximize the absorbed energy, two different structural solutions, namely fixed-ends and subdivided structure, are developed for encouraging the axisymmetric mode. It is convenient to consider the classical axial collapse situation (noted as free-ends) as a comparison reference. In this work, it is recognized that the subdivided solution is relatively the best solution. As a result, the absorbed energy increases up to 21% in comparison with the free-ends situation for copper tubes.